US Nurses On Ebola: 'We've Been Lied To'

Infection control nurse
Marc Dangel (R) assists his colleague Heinz Schuhmacher to wear a
protection suit during a media presentation at an isolation ward
for possible Ebola patients at of the Universitaetsspital Basel
hospital in Basel October 15, 2014.Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann

Healthcare workers across the nation are ill-equipped to handle
patients with the Ebola virus, according to reports
from workers affiliated with
the National Nurses United nurses union.
Not only do many US nurses lack proper protective gear — like
sealed gloves, masks, and protective goggles — healthcare workers
are not being trained to use these materials in a way that would
prevent transmission of the virus, union workers say.

"This situation has been a nightmare," National Nurses United
executive director RoseAnn DeMoro told reporters on Wednesday.
"We've been told a lot of things wrong. We've been lied to. And
we know this because the nurses have told us this."

Some 85% of nurses say they haven't been provided with the proper
instruction on how to use protective clothing, according to a
national survey of 2,300 registered nurses at facilities in
46 states. Another 41% said their hospital did not have plans to
properly equip hospital isolation rooms for Ebola patients; 40%
said they lacked goggles or face shields.

Instead of the hazmat
suits that the nonprofit organization Doctors Without Borders
says it requires for treating Ebola, nurses in hospitals across
the country have only generic gowns, gloves, and surgical masks.

These gaps in skin coverage are especially concerning because the
virus is transmitted via
direct contact, meaning that a worker could become infected
if some of the virus (in the saliva, blood, or vomit of an Ebola
patient) survived on the worker's skin and eventually got in his
or her eyes or mouth or in a wound. Healthcare workers also
haven't been provided with booties to cover their shoes, allowing
virus particles that splash or leak to be carried outside
the room, DeMoro said.

CDC director Tom Frieden, who is leading the charge against Ebola
in the US, said on a call with reporters on Tuesday that he was
aware of the problems. "I've been hearing loud and clear from
healthcare workers around the country that they're worried, they
don't feel prepared, they're distressed," Frieden said. A
Tuesday news release from the CDC said the agency was
"setting up a dedicated CDC Response Team that could be on
the ground within a few hours at any hospital that receives a
confirmed patient with Ebola."

As of Wednesday, conditions for hospital nurses remained
unimproved.

Far from comprehensive Ebola training, most nurses are simply
getting emails with links to the CDC website or flyers with basic
information about the disease typed in bullet points, registered
nurse Yadira Cabrera, who works at a hospital in El Paso, told
reporters on Wednesday.

"Hospitals say they are ready, but my experience is they are
not," Cabrera said. "Nurses at my hospital are reporting a very
different story. We received a 10-minute training on Ebola."